The Trial of Hawk Moth
by Androzani84
Summary: Gabriel Agreste has been apprehended, and after months of necessary stalling, is put on trial for his crimes as Hawk Moth. However, the case is not as open and shut as everyone hoped it to be.
1. Chapter 1

It had come out of seemingly nowhere. After months of menacing Paris with his Akumatised victims, Hawk Moth had been located and captured. It had happened when an outside consultant from Berlin had pointed out that the Dark Owl had sent a drone to his location, and traced it through security footage of the day in question. The location had turned out to be the mansion of one Gabriel Agreste. Lieutenant Raincomprix had wasted no time in leading a strike team into the mansion with a warrant for the villains arrest. His staff had been incarcerated, as no-one knew for sure if they were involved or not (all that was known was that Hawk Moth had escaped from the Eiffel Tower on Heroes' Day with the help of an accomplice). His son, Adrien was placed in a state orphanage, as there were no known relatives to hand custody over to. They assumed his innocence due to being a frequent target of Akuma victims, and called off investigations. Finally, the man's wife, who was being preserved in a glass coffin like something out of the Grimm Brothers, was removed from the underground crypt and given a proper burial at the cemetery. No-one attended the funeral, as all parties were unavailable or untraceable. And the people of Paris breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing that the monster tormenting their citizens would soon be locked up forever.

Or so they thought. As it turned out, it was near impossible to find anyone in Paris who wasn't biased against him. A judge was drafted from the World Court in Geneva to oversee the proceedings. The Jury had to be called in from the countryside, where the locals had never seen hide nor scale of a butterfly. Finding a prosecutor and a defence council was significantly easier. The defendant called in his lawyer and there were no shortage of attorneys who hated Gabriel Agreste's guts. And so with the legal requirements met, the trial could finally begin.

"May the Prosecution state the charges?", the judge began. He had a thick Portuguese accent, even though he had left there 20 years ago.

The Prosecutor, a physically revolting man with a thick, unwieldy beard. He was also slightly overweight. "Your honour, within these proceedings, I intend to adumbrate that the defendant is nothing more that a total and utterly depraved example of the human being, unworthy of anything more than life imprisonment."

"Objection!", Gabriel's defence counsel shouted. She was a more moderately attractive woman, with brown hair and glasses. She had an Italian drawl to her voice.

"Sustained."

"My client is nothing more than a victim of bias, directed at him from people who either have suffered from an Akuma attack, knows a victim of those attack, or was an instigator of these attacks.", the council raised her arm to emphasise her point. "It is therefore my intention to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my client bares no direct responsibility for the actions of these "supervillains.""

"I see.", the Judge said, straightening his glasses. "Since you seem so keen to defend him, how about you present your case first?"

"I was planning on that, your honour." The woman replied. "My case does not require many witnesses. The Defence calls Chloé Bourgeois to the stand." The blonde girl came up from the front row and made her way nonchalantly to the witness box.

"Objection!", The Prosecutor cried out. "This witness is not dressed appropriately for these proceedings." He was right on that count. Chloé, despite making an attempt to dress formally for the proceedings, was still wearing the sunglasses that were basically her trademark outside of her Queen Bee persona.

"Sustained.", was the response the Judge gave. "Miss Bourgeois, please remove the offending article." She huffed, before tucking the glasses into her pocket. "Proceed with the questioning."

The defence council made sure that Chloé Sword the oath to tell the truth, before asking her first question. "Miss Bourgeois, is it true that on your last parents day, you misplaced your family's heirloom within your handbag?"

Chloé would normally have spent a long time prior to this thinking up a lie to make herself look completely guilt-free. However, as the Mayor's daughter, she was expected to tell the truth in court. So that's what she did. "I did."

"And did you demand that the Police Officer in the room arrest the girl you suspected, purely because she was your arch-enemy?"

Chloé sulked, knowing there was no way out of this one. "Yes, I did."

"And did your father fire said police officer, even though it violated his powers as Mayor of Paris?" No one questioned how Hawk Moth's lawyer knew these facts. He had presumably gleaned them from the minds of his Akumas.

"Yes he did.", Chloé replied, barely holding back tears at having to betray her father's confidentiality. Then, before the counsel could ask another question, Chloé began to yell. "Okay, if you want me to confess so badly, then I admit it. I caused a buttload of the Akumas that have appeared in this city. I broke my bond with my friend Sabrina over a silly disagreement. I bullied the boy that became Evillustrator for his silly crushes. I even insulted the girl who became Princess Fragrance's perfume and destroyed a letter she had asked me to give to Prince Ali of Achu."

The Counsel was stunned. "I was going to say that there are no further questions. But thank you for confessing regardless."

As Chloé stepped down, the Prosecutor stood up and raised his hand. "Your honour, if the Defendant is going to offer evidence from people as equally spiteful as himself, then I beg leave to open a private case against her for wasting court time."

"Denied!", The Judge yelled banging his gavel down. "But I do agree with his point, counsellor. Is this the only type of witness you are going to call? Past victims and tormentors to highlight how little an impact he had on their becoming supervillains?"

"Not at all, your Honour. In fact, I intend to gather information from those close to my client. His staff, his son and even the superheroes who my client assured me demonised him in the first place." She then called for her next witness. "I call Nathalie Sancoeur to the stand!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Miss Sancoeur, were you aware of your employer's activities during his time as Hawk Moth?", the defence counsel asked her next witness. "Please bear in mind that you are under an oath to tell the absolute truth.", she added, preemptively stopping the prosecutor's objection.

"I was.", Nathalie replied. "In fact, I assisted with a good amount of his alibis."

"And would you consider any of those activities to be outside the jurisdictions of French law?"

"No, I wouldn't.", was the answer. "No murders or property damage were committed during any of the incidents that Mr. Agreste is charged with. Indeed, very few witnesses can attest that Hawk Moth was responsible for their creation. The only ones who retain any recollection of the incidents in question are young children, hardly a reliable source."

This got the prosecutor to speak up. "Your honour, id like to cross-examine the witness."

"I'm gong to allow this.", The judge said, intrigued as to what he hoped to accomplish.

The prosecutor walked over to Nathalie. "Miss, Sancoeur, If your employer wasn't trying to conquer the world and commit acts of terrorism during his absences, then what was he trying to accomplish?"

Nathalie's confidence did not waiver, as the prosecutor had hoped it would. "He was trying to bring his wife Emilie out of her coma. She's been in that state for a few months, and Mr. Agreste told me personally, and I quote "I can't lose her, Nathalie.". But your people didn't bother to check for any of the telltale signs. You just look tossed her into the dirt like a grandma, rather than examining her with a competent doctor."

It was then that the judge interrupted her to venture a question of his own. "Who oversaw the body of Mrs. Agreste?"

"It was Detective Wan Jut-Sen.", Lt. Roger answered.

"Bailiff, incarcerate Detective Jut-Sen.", The Judge commanded. The bailiff complied, taking the Asian Detective from the crowd and placing handcuffs on him, as they walked away.

"No further questions.", The prosecutor said, stepping back. The defence indicated for Nathalie to step down./p

"Defence council, will there be any more witnesses, or can you move on to evidence to support your case?", The Judge asked.

"Very well, your honour. I shall move on to present what little evidence I have." She pulled out a Disc. Now, with Ladybug repeatedly reversing all damage caused by these attacks, gathering evidence is near impossible. However, what I have gathered is simple enough to make my case clear. She inserted the disc into a DVD player. "This is the file footage from Agreste House, on the day that the Akuma known the Collector appeared." The disc showed the eponymous Collector turning back into Gabriel. "It stands to reason that Hawk Moth would theoretically be unable to akumatise himself. If he could, then why would he seek out and convert hapless victims, rather than go and face him himself."

"Objection!", the Prosecutor yelled. "The defendant was in fact witnessed by thousands attack Paris on Heroes Day, along with an army of Akumatised victims. And several more saw him engaging in combat with Ladybug and Cat Noir."

"Sustained.", The Judge declared. "Do you have a rebuttal?"

"Indeed I do, your honour. The footage from that incident in question shows his powers wearing off when his staff is broken, but no Butterflies are shown exiting the staff, as with every other such victim. That, and the appearance of the giant moth creature afterwards indicates that Hawk Moth has an accomplice capable of giving their targets additional abilities."

The prosecutor, realising that he couldn't possibly make an effective comeback from this right now, spoke up. "Your honour, I'd like to declare a recess in order to properly construct my case. It seems that I have some things I need to consider."

"I'm going to allow this.", The Judge responded, banging his gavel. "There will be a recess of 48 hours for the Prosecution to make his preparations. But if you take longer than the allotted time, I will have no choice but to dismiss the case."


	3. Chapter 3

After the proceedings for the day had wrapped up, Gabriel met up with his attorney for a discussion. "I must say, for someone recommended by my in-laws, you're remarkably reliable for my case, Miss Smythe.", he said sincerely.

"I'm merely doing my job.", she replied. "Family politics have nothing to do with my opinion of my client. All I care about is working to get them out of prison."

Gabriel nodded. "Yes. It's fortunate for you that they have nothing substantial to convict me on. In repairing the damages with her Miraculous after every Akuma and Sentimonster attack, she's ruined any chances of ever putting me away. So even if the jury intends to vote to convict, the court will have no choice but to dismiss the charges."

"But if you do get off and return to your activities, won't that risk further imprisonment?", Miss Smythe asked.

"Oh I've thought of that. If Ladybug intends to ensure I rot the second time, she'll have to avoid using her Miraculous' special power. This will turn the public of the fickle city of Paris against her and ruin her reputation. She won't be able to take me down without bringing herself down as well."

Miss Smythe seemed surprised at this. "You seem to have given this some thought. But have you considered what might happen should Ladybug or Cat Noir show up as a witness for my opponent in his case?"/p

Gabriel smiled at this. "If that happens, then you should request to cross-examine them. Ask them questions they WON'T want to reveal to the public, like their true identities. When they refuse to answer, it'll call everything else they've said or will say into question. The prosecutor's credibility will be ruined."

Miss Smythe gave her own smile at this. "And with him, any chance of conviction will fall apart."

* * *

Elsewhere, the prosecutor was sitting on top of the police station, having prepared an impromptu "Ladybug-signal" to summon the superheroes. Lieutenant Roger was standing next to him, and wasn't happy. "I don't care how desperate you are to win a case, you can't misuse the police department's budget on a light show."

The prosecutor sighed. "Honestly, Officer. Don't you read comic books? Most police forces in those send in a signal to the sky when they need to summon the heroes to them."

"We generally don't need one to find trouble." Both the prosecutor and Lieutenant Roger turned around to see Ladybug and Cat Noir standing right there. "For the record, we'd have come if you'd simply phoned us.", the latter continued.

"I didn't have your number.", the prosecutor replied. "I must assume you're having a slow night to actually respond to my message."

"Actually yes.", Lady us said in response. "With Hawk Moth temporarily out of the way, there's been very little that requires our presence. And my Netflix is down and I don't have an Amazon account." Roger laughed slightly at this. "I can guess as to why you called us here."

The prosecutor nodded. "Indeed. The trial isn't going the way you and I want it to. Hawk Moth is managing time sway the crowd towards him and we've got nothing that'll help swing things our way again."

"So you want us to come and help make sure that monster gets put away forever.", Ladybug finished for him. She then reached her hand out. "I'll be there tomorrow."

The prosecutor reciprocated her gesture. "10 O'clock tomorrow. With your help, we're going to end Paris' supervillain problem once and for all."


End file.
